Top 10 YouTube Movie Critics - TopX Episode 1
Hey, it's Dan, and welcome to Watchmojo.com. I'd like to welcome you to the very first episode of TopX, where we count down the very best that YouTube has to offer. We're starting this show with a doozy, as we're counting down the top 10 YouTube movie critics. Here on TopX, as I've mentioned before, we count down YouTube channels that cover a variety of topics. This week, we're doing movie critics and reviewers. While many of these channels feature what you might consider standard reviews, we've expanded our definition to include large-scale podcasts and non-traditional experimental forms of reviews. We're not ranking these guys and gals based on how many subscribers they get, but rather on a mix of their style, popularity, votes from our users, and overall impact on the YouTube community. Lastly, a lot of people who do movie reviews also have channels that are mostly focused on let's play or videogame content. So, if you're wondering where all they ended up, you'll have to tune in next week. List #10: Mr. Sunday Movies (youtube.com/mrsundaymovies) Now right off the bat, Mr. Sunday Movies lets you know that he knows a lot about movies. He knows his stuff. He gives you a lot of context for his reviews, a lot of background on the movie or the series or whatever; it shows that he really knows his source material. For instance, for his Gone Girl review, he references a lot of Fincher's work. For the new Transformers movie, Age of Extinction, he references the other movies, like when he talks about how the stupid humor from the second one isn't present in this one. He lets you know that he's done his homework. He's seen a lot of movies. He's not just some "noob," so to speak. Now, that being said, nerd culture is definitely his forte. If you take a quick look at his page, it's mostly sci-fi and superhero stuff. That's not a bad thing, but if you're not into it, you're not into it. The upshot to that is that he does a lot of different stuff. He does countdowns, aside from the actual reviews, of course; speculative things like who's going to be in the next Marvel movie; he'll do Vs. battles, I think; as far as the style of his video goes, it's not what I'd call the most high production value, but it is very redundant. Every time he references something, he shows you exactly that so there's never any confusion as to what he's talking about. When he talks about, say, in his Age of Extinction review, he says "the new Shia LaBeouf" and he'll show you the actor he's talking about. You don't have to speculate or anything like that. Also, his content is all 1080p and very tightly edited, so it's a nice little patch. #9: Red Letter Media (youtube.com/redlettermedia) Created way back in 2004, Red Letter Media was actually the creation of Mike Stoklasa and Jay Bauman. It was not exactly a YouTube channel, but more of a film and production company. Now, these guys throw us to attention when they released a seven-part review of The Phantom Menace, that is Star Wars for those of you who don't know. In this, Stoklasa showcased what is now famous, his monotone speaking voice. What's also notable about this is that it's a seven-part series, each that's 10 minutes long. So it's about half the runtime of the actual movie. It's an extensive review. Aside from that, the bulk of their content, like their "Half in the Bag" show, are sort of round-table discussions with beer. It's usually two or more people, with a couple of beers, just talking about a movie. Now, if you're an aficionado of really crappy movies, they have a "Best of the Worst" series, which is exactly what it sounds like. They talk about the best of the worst movies out there. I'd say Red Letter Media is good for people who like to hear discussions on their movies. It's more of a podcast kind of thing, where instead of just like a "is it good, is it bad," if you like to have a number of personalities talking about the movie in different ways, these are the guys for you. #8: Schmoes Know (youtube.com/schmoesknow) Next up are the guys with the credentials. Now, Schmoes Know are actually the first YouTube channel to be certified by Rotten Tomatoes, and they're also the official reviewers for Movies.com and the Heidi and Frank radio station. Now, being reviewers with such credentials, their reviews are a lot more traditional. They offer a rating out of 5, I think it's like "3 out of 5 schmoes," and they also have a policy that they never reveal spoilers in their reviews, something that we're quite guilty of here at WatchMojo. Despite their relative fame, they're probably the channel with some of the most engagement with their fans. They have a weekly podcast, where they interact with people on Twitter and Facebook. The podcast is also super-high production value. They have a full studio, proper lighting and camerawork, celebrity guests, the whole nine yards. When you couple that with how in-tune they are with their audience, it makes for a very rewarding channel to follow. #7: Screen Junkies (youtube.com/screenjunkies) Now these guys are actually the most subscribed channel on our list, even though, by YouTube standards, they're pretty young, having only been around since 2011. Their channel is split up into essentially two kinds of videos. The first kind is what we would call more traditional: discussions, podcasts, that sort of thing. Now, the second part of the channel is probably what you've known them for, whether you know it or not. They have these things called "Honest Trailers," which are essentially what they call an "honest trailer" of a movie, where a very rough-sounding narrator is pointing out the gimmicks, the quips, the silly things; the shortcomings of the movie. These are very satisfying for people who have actually seen the movie already, and are looking for someone to make light of it or to point out the things you've noticed in it. Now these serve as a de-facto review, they're not a "whether you should see it or not, is it good or bad," you have to sort of gather from what they've interjected what their opinion of the movies is. Now, I realize that this isn't exactly what you would call a traditional review. It actually helps to have already seen the movie. That said, they're also extremely satisfying if you've seen the movie or even if you're just interested in it, or if you've already dismissed the movie as something you don't want to see. It's great, because you really feel on the inside of a pretty funny joke. #6: The Flick Pick (youtube.com/theflickpick) So the man behind this channel is John Flickinger, and I'd really like to believe that's his real name. Anyway, the channel is mostly him talking, and it's all him. The whole thing is his personality, him talking in the screen in a very traditional, straight-at-the-camera kind of way. Although pretty much all of YouTube hinges on personality (gestures at himself), The Flick Pick really depends on John's style. Now, he's very enthusiastic, he makes a lot of crazy gestures, he's loud, he shouts, so your enjoyment of his channel definitely hinges on whether or not you like his style. But he's got those baby blue eyes that are really easy to get lost in, so that shouldn't be a problem. While his style may seem really simple at first, you know, it's just mostly him talking in front of the camera, he has clearly got the attention of the right people. On his show, he's got interviews with Ali Larter and Sean Bean. I looked for others, but couldn't find any. But, there's clearly more to come, and he's definitely doing something right. #5: Chris Stuckmann (youtube.com/chrisstuckmann) On paper, the Stuckmann is actually very similar to John Flickinger. His reviews are straight up just him talking in front of the camera, talking about the movie. His reviews, I'd say, hinge less on his personality. That's not to say he doesn't have a personality, it's just that there is less voices, less crazy hand gestures, less outbursts; his reviews carry what I'd call a much more serious tone than a lot of the other straight-at-the-camera talking heads reviews. Now, that's not to say he doesn't have fun. His "Hilariocity" reviews are reviews completely devoted to terrible movies. These reviews are thorough. For instance, his review of Shaquille O'Neal's movie Steel is 24 minutes long. It goes in-depth at just how bad this movie is, shot-for-shot. It's actually in these Hilariocity reviews that I find his tone really shines, the sort of dry, not monotone as I said, but the more serious tone that he has definitely sells the crappiness of the movies even more, and makes it funnier to just point out how terrible they are. #4: Your Movie Sucks (youtube.com/yourmoviesucksdotorg) External links * http://www.watchmojo.com/video/id/13027 Category:Top 10 lists